Asking mindfree second one

maronghong

2. A few people who are bad writers simply cannot improve their writing, whether or not they receive instruction. still, most bad writers can at least be taught to improve their writing enough so that they are no longer bad writers. However, no one can become a great writer simply by being taught how to be a better writer, since great must have not just skill, but also talent.
Which one of the following can be properly infered from the passage above?
A). All bad writers can become better writers.
B). All great writers had to be taught to become better writers.
C). Some bad writer can never become great writers.
D). Some bad writers can become great writers.
E). Some great writers can be taught to be even better writers.

mindfree

First of all, you do not need to ask just me. There are many people willing and able to help here on CD.

Regarding "inference" type of question, I think the easiest way is the same as assumption. Like conclusion, inference is what you can infer from the premises. For example: A-->B. B is the inference. So is neg B --> neg A, same as with assumption.

As to this specific question, the issue is where you put the "not".
Neg A is Not all bad writers can become better writer, an argument that conforms to the premises.
Neg B is Not all great writers had to be ..., an argument that also conforms to the premises.
Neg C is All bad writers can become great writers, an argument that is contrary to the premises.
Neg D is All bad writers cannot become great writers. This is not mentioned in the premises, from which we can only know that bad writers might or might not become great writers. So Neg D is in confirmity with the premises.
Neg E is All great writers cannot be taught ... This is another argument that is out of the scope of the premises simply because it is never mentioned by the premises.

So the answer is C.

maronghong

Thank you so much.I really appreciate your help. I want to know whether every question can analyze from A--->B, I saw you explain many questions from the relationship between A and B. You know some inference questions may be only from structure or one sentence. In this case , how to do?

mindfree

As long as it is inference or conclusion or assumption, my method will always work because of the reasoning structure: A-->B ==> Neg B --> Neg A. Even when there are more than one line of reasoning in the original argument, it is very likely that the reasoning is progressive and the conclusion is ultimate.

maronghong

Thank you so much, mindfree! When I saw you on line, I really want to catch the chance.Whether you can answer these question depends on your time. I think your method work well for me.